Drawing room
This was very much Mrs Shaw's room, with the portrait painted of her by G.A. Sartorio in Rome in 1895 hanging over the mantelpiece. A maid recalled serving tea with cress sandwiches and cakes in this room using a temporary table made by the large metal tray now on top of the desk.

Although the maids arranged flowers for the drawing room, Shaw once remarked that he liked flowers, but he liked children too, and saw no reason to cut off their heads and stick them in water.

Kitchen, Scullery and Wellhouse
These areas were very much the servants' domain and the Shaws would not often have come in here. The kitchen is a recreation of what it would have been like before the war - the NT turned this into a tenanted flat when it acquired the house.

Among original pieces are the 1921 Eagle Gold Star Range (right); the knife cleaner and the dresser. During Shaw's time here water came from a well. After the accumulator house was built to provide electricity, the motor was electric, and pumped water up to tanks in the roof. There is also a pump outside the back door of the house, which could possibly have been a pump for a paraffin store.

Mrs Higgs prepared Shaw's vegetarian meals here and supervised the daily routine of housework. Shaw had been a vegetarian since January 1881, inspired by Shelley and lack of money. Unwilling to be a living grave for murdered animals, he also promoted the cause on world economic grounds.